DAILY ALMANAC
Today is Wednesday, Dec. 2, the 337th day of 2020. There are 29 days left in the year.
On this date:
1804: Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French.
1816: The first savings bank in the United States, the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society, opened for business.
1823: President James Monroe outlined his doctrine opposing European expansion in the Western Hemisphere.
1859: Militant abolitionist John Brown was hanged for his raid on Harpers Ferry the previous October.
1942: An artificially created, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was demonstrated for the first time at the University of Chicago.
1954: The U.S. Senate passed, 67-22, a resolution condemning Sen. Joseph R. Mccarthy, R-wis., saying he had “acted contrary to senatorial ethics and tended to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute.”
1957: The Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania, the first fullscale commercial nuclear facility in the U.S., began operations. (The reactor ceased operating in 1982.)
1970: The newly created Environmental Protection Agency opened its doors under its first director, William D. Ruckelshaus.
1980: Four American churchwomen were raped and murdered in El Salvador. (Five national guardsmen were convicted in the killings.)
1982: In the first operation of its kind, doctors at the University of Utah Medical Center implanted a permanent artificial heart in the chest of retired dentist Dr. Barney Clark, who lived 112 days with the device.
1993: Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar was shot to death by security forces in Medellin.
2000: Al Gore sought a recount in South Florida, while George W. Bush flatly asserted, “I’m soon to be the president” and met with GOP congressional leaders. Actor Gail Fisher died in Culver City, Calif. at age 65.
2016: 36 people died when fire erupted in an illegally converted warehouse in Oakland, California, during a dance party.
Actor Cathy Lee Crosby (“That’s Incredible”) is 76. Director Penelope Spheeris (“Wayne’s World,” “The Decline of Western Civilization”) is 75. Actor Ron Raines (“Guiding Light”) is 71. Country singer John Wesley Ryles is 70. Actor Keith Szarabajka (“Angel”) is 68. Actor Dan Butler (“Frasier”) is 66.
News anchor Stone Phillips is 66. Actor
Dennis Christopher (“Breaking Away,” “Chariots of Fire”) is 65. Actor Steven Bauer (“Scarface”) is 64. Bassist Rick Savage of Def Leppard is 60. Actor
Brendan Coyle (“Downton Abbey”) is 57. Bassist
Nate Mendel of Foo Fighters is 52. Actor Lucy Liu is 52. Actor Suzy Nakamura (“Dr. Ken”) is 52. Actor Rena Sofer (“24,” “Just Shoot Me”) is 52. Rapper Treach of Naughty by Nature is 50. Actor Joe Lo Truglio (“Brooklyn Nine-nine”) is 50. Singer Nelly Furtado is 42. Singer Britney Spears is 39. Singer-actror Jana Kramer is 37. Actor Daniela Ruah (“NCIS: Los Angeles”) is 37. Actor Alfred Enoch (“How to Get Away with Murder”) is 32. Singer Charlie Puth is 29.